Paris, Aug. 15.
It was perhaps just as well that the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and France decided not to meet at Boulogne on the Sunday after the Wrangel-Polish mis und standing. However that misunderstanding arose, it was in the highest degree regrettable, unfortunate, and all the other things which dip-Jomacy allows such incidents to be. It was also about as dangerous as D.N.T. It is all over now, except the cloud of dust, which we may hope will settle. Both Millerand and Lloyd-George have tempers, and there is reason to believe that a meeting between them would not have found either in the best possible mood for deliberating quietly on the fate of nations. Perhaps they felt that themselves, It is certainly better that they should not meet till, following the excellent old nursery recipe, they had each counted twenty.
Tae Beavry or Tux.
One good thing has come from the incident, It has proved that no dislike or rancour is so strong what Kipling calls the Ties of Common Funk. There was hardly any sarcasm too bitter to be devoted to England by the French Press up till Wednesday, August 11. Some of the remarks were veiled in courteous manner, but many of them were direct. Most of them were witty. All were angry, hostile, and full of suspicious dislike. Supervenes " real, terrifying Situation, and with one consent sarcasm is placed on one side, and the Press changes its note to one of the grave est, most courteous protest. "It is impossible that the incident should prove what it at first sight seems to be," "Explanations are certain to follow," and so forth; with one loud cry from throats of every party: "Friendship between France and Britain is absolutely heeessary to both'
That, of course, is true, and perhaps the people who on both sides of the Channel have been slashing with their pocket-knives at the bonds of that friendship will have learned by their own panic that this is a game best kept for gayer occasions than any we sceui likely to enjoy for a long time. We have been startled, we have been shocked, but, above all, we have been frightened. Let us hope this will prove to have a salutary effect. Tre sensation is certainly nasty enough to have the virtue of mos! nasty things—that of being good for us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.